I want to use the gaussian function in python to generate some numbers between a specific range giving the mean and variance
so lets say I have a range between 0 and 10
and I want my mean to be 3 and variance to be 4
mean = 3, variance = 4
how can I do that ?
Use random.gauss. From the docs:
random.gauss(mu, sigma)
Gaussian distribution. mu is the mean, and sigma is the standard deviation. This is slightly
faster than the normalvariate() function defined below.
It seems to me that you can clamp the results of this, but that wouldn't make it a Gaussian distribution. I don't think you can satisfy all the constraints simultaneously. If you want to clamp it to the range [0, 10], you could get your numbers:
num = min(10, max(0, random.gauss(3, 4)))
But then the resulting distribution of numbers won't be truly Gaussian. In this case, it seems you can't have your cake and eat it, too.
There's probably a better way to do this, but this is the function I ended up creating to solve this problem:
import random
def trunc_gauss(mu, sigma, bottom, top):
a = random.gauss(mu,sigma))
while (bottom <= a <= top) == False:
a = random.gauss(mu,sigma))
return a
If we break it down line by line:
import random
This allows us to use functions from the random library, which includes a gaussian random number generator (random.gauss).
def trunc_gauss(mu, sigma, bottom, top):
The function arguments allow us to specify the mean (mu) and variance (sigma), as well as the top and bottom of our desired range.
a = random.gauss(mu,sigma))
Inside the function, we generate an initial random number according to a gaussian distribution.
while (bottom <= a <= top) == False:
a = random.gauss(mu,sigma))
Next, the while loop checks if the number is within our specified range, and generates a new random number as long as the current number is outside our range.
return a
As soon as the number is inside our range, the while loop stops running and the function returns the number.
This should give a better approximation of a gaussian distribution, since we don't artificially inflate the top and bottom boundaries of our range by rounding up or down the outliers.
I'm quite new to Python, so there are most probably simpler ways, but this worked for me.
I was working on some numerical analytical computation and I ran into this python tutorial site - http://www.python-course.eu/weighted_choice_and_sample.php
Now, this is what I proffer as a solution should anyone be too busy as to not hit the site. I don't know how many gaussian values you need so I'll go with 100 as n, mu you gave as 3 and variance as 4 which makes sigma = 2. Here's the code:
from random import gauss
n = 100
values = []
frequencies = {}
while len(values) < n:
value = gauss(3, 2)
if 0 < value < 10:
frequencies[int(value)] = frequencies.get(int(value), 0) + 1
values.append(value)
print(values)
I hope this helps. You can get the plot as well. It's all in the tutorials.
If you have a small range of integers, you can create a list with a gaussian distribution of the numbers within that range and then make a random choice from it.
You can use minimalistic code for 150 variables:
import numpy as np
s = np.random.normal(3,4,150) #<= mean = 3, variance = 4
print(s)
Normal distribution is another like random, stochastic distribution. So, we can check it by:
import seaborn as sns
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
AA1_plot = sns.distplot(s, kde=True, rug=False)
plt.show()
import numpy as np
from random import uniform
from scipy.special import erf,erfinv
import math
def trunc_gauss(mu, sigma,xmin=np.nan,xmax=np.nan):
"""Truncated Gaussian distribution.
mu is the mean, and sigma is the standard deviation.
"""
if np.isnan(xmin):
zmin=0
else:
zmin = erf((xmin-mu)/sigma)
if np.isnan(xmax):
zmax=1
else:
zmax = erf((xmax-mu)/sigma)
y = uniform(zmin,zmax)
z = erfinv(y)
# This will not come up often but if y >= 0.9999999999999999
# due to the truncation of the ervinv function max z = 5.805018683193454
while math.isinf(z):
z = erfinv(uniform(zmin,zmax))
return mu + z*sigma
